Yemen: Tariq Alamoodi, arbitrarily detained since 21 months

Alkarama referred to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the case of Tariq Saeed Abdullah Saleh Alamoodi, arrested on September 2012 and arbitrarily detained since then in Sanaa without ever being brought before any judicial authority.

Disappearance and incommunicado detentionOn 26 September 2012, Tariq Alamoodi, 23 years at that time, soldier at Aden Intelligence Headquarters, was arrested in his unit and questioned about alleged links with terrorist suspects. For having refuted these accusations, he was transferred to a secret detention center where he was held during eight months, completely isolated from the outside world.

His family, which had not heard from him since that day, tried to obtain information about his situation from the military authorities which, however, refused to acknowledge his detention. It was only after the intervention of the General Prosecutor, who was contacted about the case by Alkarama office in Sanaa, that the intelligence army services finally recognized his detention and allowed his family to visit him.

Arbitrary detentionTo date, no regular criminal proceeding has been initiated against Tariq Alamoodi, despite his family efforts and Alkarama calls to release him or, at the very least, to place him under the protection of the law and to guarantee his fundamental rights to a fair trial.

Tariq Alamoodi has in particular not been officially notified of the charges against him, nor has been brought before an independent and impartial tribunal to hear his case, and challenge, where appropriate, the legality of his detention.

Alkarama therefore considers that its ongoing deprivation of liberty constitutes an arbitrary detention and referred the case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.